Palliative Care in Older Adults with Cancer and Frailty

Palliative care is an approach to care addressing quality of life, pain and distress symptoms, and psychological and spiritual well-being in patients with serious illness. Access to palliative care is critical, and the early integration of palliative care has a substantial benefit for patients with cancer. In older patients with cancer who are frail, palliative care may be the primary initial treatment approach, helping to mitigate or even avoid the significant adverse effects from cancer therapy to which frail older adults are more susceptible. Frail older adults have unique palliative needs due to higher rates of comorbid conditions, functional impairments, and high rates of complications and symptoms at the end-of-life. This chapter will discuss the availability of palliative care, the ease of access in older adults, the benefits of early integration of palliative care in oncology treatments, pharmacological considerations in older adults, and a special focus on the specifics of care in older cancer patients with frailty.